The present invention relates to a cathode ray tube, and in particular to a cathode ray tube having an indirectly heated cathode using a low-melting-temperature crystallized glass as an insulator for supporting a cathode sleeve.
In general, cathode ray tubes (CRTs), for example, color cathode ray tubes (CPTs) for use in color TV receivers and color cathode ray tubes (CDTs) for use in color display systems, have a phosphor screen formed on an inner surface of a faceplate of a panel portion of their vacuum envelope, a shadow mask having a large number of electron-beam transmissive apertures and disposed within the panel portion so as to face the phosphor screen, an in-line type electron gun housed within a neck portion of the vacuum envelope, and a deflection yoke mounted around the outside of a funnel portion of the vacuum envelope.
In operation of a color cathode ray tube, three electron beams emitted from the electron gun are deflected by the deflection yoke, and then impinge upon the pixels of corresponding colors of the phosphor screen, respectively, after passing through the electron-beam transmissive apertures in the shadow mask, thereby displaying a specified color image on the phosphor screen.
FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a color cathode ray tube for illustrating an example of its overall construction. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 41 denotes a panel portion, 42 is a phosphor screen, 43 is a neck portion for housing an in-line type electron gun 49, 44 is a funnel portion for connecting the panel portion 41 and the neck portion 43 together, and 45 is a shadow mask, which is press-formed so as to be self-supporting and is welded at its periphery to a mask frame 46. Reference numeral 47 denotes a magnetic shield, 48 is a mask suspension mechanism, 50 is a deflection yoke, 51 is an external magnetic correction device, 52 is an implosion proofing band, 53 are panel pins, 54 is a mask assembly, and 55 are stem pins.
In this color cathode ray tube, the panel portion 41, the neck portion 43 and the funnel portion 44 form a vacuum envelope 56, and three intensity-modulated electron beams (one center electron beam and two side electron beams) B are emitted from the electron gun 49 housed within the neck portion 43, and then are deflected in a horizontal direction (the X direction) and a vertical direction (the Y direction) by horizontal and vertical deflection magnetic fields, respectively, generated by the deflection yoke 50 such that the three electron beams B scan the phosphor screen 42 two-dimensionally to reproduce an image. In FIG. 4, reference numeral 57 denotes an internal conductive coating which applies a high voltage introduced via an anode button 58 to a main lens of the electron gun 49 and a conductive film coated on the phosphor layer of the phosphor screen 42.
The electron beams B are intensity-modulated by modulating signals such as video signals supplied by the stem pins 55, then are controlled by electrodes such as an intermediate grid electrode supplied with a specified voltage, then are subjected to color selection by the shadow mask 45 disposed immediately in front of the phosphor screen 42, and strike phosphor elements of the desired color (red, green or blue) constituting the phosphor screen 42 to thereby reproduce a specified image.
In the color cathode ray tubes of this kind, because of the cost of manufacture and ease of fabrication, the outer surface (also variously called the image-forming surface, the viewing surface and the face) of its panel portion is configured to have a large radius of curvature (or a large equivalent radius of curvature), that is, to be nearly flat, and on the other hand, the inner surface of the panel portion formed with the phosphor layer is configured to have a relatively smaller radius of curvature (or a relatively smaller equivalent radius of curvature) without impairing a sense of flatness of a picture displayed on the phosphor screen viewed from the outer surface side of the panel portion.
FIG. 5 is a side view of an essential part of the electron gun 49 provided with an internal voltage-dividing resistor and used in the color cathode ray tube shown in FIG. 4, as viewed in a direction perpendicular to a direction of the in-line arrangement of the three electron beams. The electron gun 49 for projecting the three electron beams in line is housed within the neck portion 43 of the vacuum envelope 56 of the color cathode ray tube.
The electron gun 49 includes an anode (the sixth grid electrode) 61 supplied with a highest voltage (an anode voltage), an intermediate grid electrode 62 supplied with a voltage divided from the anode voltage by the internal voltage-dividing resistor 72, a cathode structure K for emitting the three electron beams, and a focus lens comprised of the grid electrode group 63 including plural electrodes, the fourth grid electrode 64, the third grid electrode 65, the second grid electrode 66, and the first grid electrode 67 and focusing the electron beams emitted from the cathode structure K.
The electrodes 61 to 76 are fixed in the specified order with specified spacings therebetween by embedding portions of peripheries of the respective electrodes in a pair of insulating support rods 69. A shield cup 68 is attached to the sixth grid electrode 61, and springs (not shown) made of metal are welded at their respective ends to a sidewall of a front end of the shield cup 68, and the other ends of the respective springs press resiliently against the internal conductive coating 57 made of material such as graphite and extending from the inner wall of the funnel portion 44 toward that of the neck portion 43 of the vacuum envelope 56 such that the anode voltage is supplied to the sixth grid electrode 61 via the anode button 58 sealed through the funnel portion 44.
The internal voltage-dividing resistor 72 is attached to an outer surface of one of the pair of insulating support rods 69 facing the tube wall of the neck portion 43. The internal voltage-dividing resistor 72 is provided with terminals 73, 74 and 75 for electrical connections, the terminal 73 is connected to the sixth grid electrode 61 supplied with the anode voltage, the terminal 74 is connected to the intermediate grid electrode 62, and the terminal 75 is connected to the earth.
A connecting tab 73a is attached to the terminal 73, projects from it in a direction perpendicular to the central axis of the electron gun 49, and is connected to the sixth grid electrode 61. A connecting tab 74a projects from the terminal 74, is connected to the intermediate grid electrode 62, and thereby supplies a high voltage divided from the anode voltage by a factor corresponding to the ratio between the resistances in the internal voltage-dividing resistor 72 to the intermediate grid electrode 62. A connecting tab 75a projects from the terminal 75, is connected to one of the stem pins 55 via a connecting lead or the like, and is connected to a potential such as the ground potential (hereinafter the ground potential) via the one of the stem pins 55 outside the cathode ray tube.
A conductor 76 made of a metal wire has one end thereof connected to one electrode of the fifth grid electrode group 63, surrounds the internal voltage-dividing resistor 72 and the insulating support rod 69 mounting the resistor 72, and has the other end thereof connected to the one electrode of the fifth grid electrode group 63 on the side thereof opposite from the position at which the one end of the conductor 76 is connected, across the insulating support rod 69. After the completed gun assembly is sealed into the neck portion 43, the conductor 76 is heated by external high-frequency induction heating coil to evaporate a portion of metals contained in the conductor 76 and thereby to form a metal thin film on the inner tube wall of the neck portion 43 such that a stable potential is established on the inner tube wall of the neck portion 43 during the operation of the cathode ray tube.
It is known that an extension from a metal wire used for connecting electrodes of the same potential together within the cathode ray tube can be used as the conductor 76, and there is used another type of the conductor 76 which has only one end thereof connected to an electrode and the other end thereof free.
FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of an essential part of an example of the cathode structure K used in the electron gun for the color cathode ray tube shown in FIG. 5. In FIG. 6, three equally spaced eyelets 81 for green, blue and red electron beams, respectively, are embedded through an insulator 82 made of crystallized glass.
The insulator 82 is plate-like and generally rectangular with its long sides in the direction of the in-line arrangement of the three electron beams. The sidewall and the peripheral portion of the top surface of the insulator 82 are covered all around the circumference by a cup-shaped support 83. Fixed within each of the eyelets 81 is a sleeve support 85 for supporting a cathode sleeve 84. Each of the cathode sleeves 84 is provided with a cathode base metal 87 having an electron-emissive material layer 86 on a top surface thereof facing the first grid electrode 67. The cathode having the configuration shown in FIG. 6 is called the cathode of the glass-bonded type.
With this configuration of the cathode, the cathode sleeves 84, the cathode base metals 87 and the electron-emissive material layers 86 are heated by passing current through a heater (not shown) housed within the respective cathode sleeves 84, to such a high temperature that electrons are emitted from the electron-emissive material layers 86.
The crystallized glass constituting the insulator 82 used in the cathode structure K is generally made up chiefly of zinc oxide (ZnO), boron oxide (B2O3), silicon oxide (SiO2) and magnesium oxide (MgO), and among various characteristics required of the insulator 82 made of the crystallized glass, it is required in particular that its resistance to heat is great and the amount of gases evolving from it is small.
The following disclose techniques related to the above-explained cathodes of the glass-bonded type.
Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 1-46977 discloses a technique for using crystallized glass containing amorphous material and having specified its thermal expansion characteristics, Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 1-61215 discloses a composition of crystallized glass and a firing technique using two low- and high-temperature process steps, Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 3-15287 discloses a composition of crystallized glass, a proportion of crystal components and a ratio between x-ray diffraction peak intensities, and Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 5-44768 discloses a composition of crystallized glass and x-ray diffraction intensity ratio between main crystalline phases. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei 10-312757 specifies positional relationship between an insulator and a dish-shaped member for supporting the insulator therein.
The cathode structures of the glass-bonded type using crystallized glass are widely used in cathode ray tubes because of a simplified structure for supporting cathode sleeves, power saving provided by superior heat-insulating effect of the crystallized glass, and other various factors.
Conventionally, the firing conditions for crystallized glasses are determined mainly by its heat-resistant characteristics, as is apparent from the above-cited references, but suppression of evolution of gases from the cathode structures is also important, and there have been demands for the problem of the evolution of gases to be solved.
As described above, the composition for the crystallized glasses are generally made up chiefly of zinc oxide (ZnO), boron oxide (B2O3) silicon oxide (SiO2) and magnesium oxide (MgO). In the process of crystallizing the composition, the boron oxide (B2O3) and the silicon oxide (SiO2) compete with each other for the zinc oxide (ZnO) for forming a Znxe2x80x94Bxe2x80x94O composite oxide system substance and a Znxe2x80x94Sixe2x80x94O composite oxide system substance, respectively, and the heat-resistant characteristics of the crystallized glasses depend upon the proportions of the formed two composite oxide system substances.
With the above composition, the proportion of the Znxe2x80x94Sixe2x80x94O composite oxide system substance increases with increasing firing temperature, and as a result some of the boron oxide (B2O3) remains in the glass such that the heat-resistant characteristics are degraded. There have been demands for the problem of ensuring an accurate spacing between a cathode and the first grid electrode to be solved.
Further, outgassing characteristics varies with firing temperature. If the firing temperature is lowered in view of the heat-resistant characteristics, the glass cannot be outgassed completely during the firing operation, and some gases remain in the insulator. It was found out that the amount of gases evolving from the crystallized glass increases as the temperature of the cathode structure is elevated during the operation of the cathode structure, and consequently, the electron-emissive characteristics of the cathode is degraded.
As explained above, in cathode ray tubes employing a conventional cathode structure of the glass-bonded type, there have been demands for solution to the problems of improving the heat-resistant characteristics of the crystallized glass constituting the insulator for supporting the cathode sleeves and reducing the amount of gases evolving from the crystallized glass at the same time.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a cathode ray tube having superior electron-emissive characteristics and capable of securing a spacing between the cathode and the first grid electrode with high precision, by solving the above-described problems with the conventional techniques.
To solve the above-explained problems, the present invention specifies the crystalline phases of the crystallized glass constituting the insulator for supporting cathode sleeves of the cathode structure.
The following describes a representative configuration of the present invention.
In accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a cathode ray tube comprising a vacuum envelope having a panel portion, a neck portion, and a funnel portion connecting the panel portion and the neck portion; a phosphor screen formed on an inner surface of the panel portion; an electron gun housed in the neck portion and including a cathode, a first grid electrode spaced from the cathode and a plurality of grid electrodes spaced between the first grid electrode and the phosphor screen for generating and directing an electron beam toward the phosphor screen, the first grid electrode and the plurality of grid electrodes being fixed in predetermined axially spaced relationship by a plurality of insulating support rods, and a deflection yoke mounted in the vicinity of the junction between the neck portion and the funnel portion, the cathode being supported within an eyelet disposed within and bonded to a cup-shaped support by a crystallized glass contained within the cup-shaped support, the cup-shaped support being fixed by the plurality of insulating support rods, wherein the crystallized glass is formed by firing a glass composition composed chiefly of zinc oxide (ZnO), boron oxide (B2O3), silicon oxide (SiO2), and magnesium oxide (MgO), and the crystallized glass exhibits a ratio in intensity of a diffraction peak A to a diffraction peak B in a range from 0.25 to 0.80 in an X-ray diffraction analysis using x-rays of 0.154 nanometers in wavelength, where the diffraction peak A is a peak in the vicinity of 2xcex8=25.5xc2x0, the diffraction peak B is a peak in the vicinity of 2xcex8=26.5xc2x0, 2xcex8is an angle which a diffracted X-ray beam from a specimen surface makes with an incident X-ray beam.